Let+Me+Hear+You+Smile

=Let Me Hear You Smile= by Anne Gossett

Purpose
This activity is designed to emphasize the importance of tone of voice when dealing with customers or members of the public. The ideal audience for this activity is personnel involved in customer service, market surveys, sales, call centers or other occupations requiring frequent phone contact. It can be used as a role-play activity during a training session or as an energizer.

Time Required
The activity should take approximately 20 to 25 minutes. With very small groups it should take approximately 15 minutes.

Number of Participants
Let Me Hear You Smile is a very adaptable activity that can be used with groups as small as 3 participants or as large as 30. If you have 3 or fewer participants, then the facilitator can also join in the activity. If you have more than 7 participants, divide the group into smaller teams. Four to 6 participants on a team is ideal.

Supplies Needed
• One set of Smile cards for each team. - [|Smile_Cards.pdf] • Scratch paper for each participant.

Preparation
The facilitator will need to print and cut apart the Smile cards before the activity. They may also want to adapt the phrases on the cards to match the training topic.

Introduction
Ask the group, “Can you hear a smile?” Pause for a few seconds to let everyone think about the question.

Ask, “Can you tell when someone is smiling when you talk to them?” Someone will probably volunteer that it is easy to tell they are smiling because they can see the smile.

Add, “What if you can’t see the speaker, but only hear them?” One or more participants should agree that you can tell from someone’s voice if they are smiling.

Continue by asking, “Does smiling make a difference if you are asking someone for help? Or if you are giving directions?” Several people should agree that it does make a difference. It is possible that some participants will think that it does not make a difference.

Say, “Let’s test the theory that smiling will influence your tone of voice and can make a difference when talking to someone.”

Explain to the group, “Everyone is going to take a turn reading a phrase from a card without anyone seeing their face. Everyone else will try to determine if they are smiling or not.”

Divide the participants into teams, if necessary, and explain the process for the activity.

Process
After dividing into teams, each participant is given a piece of scratch paper. A volunteer is asked to start the exercise in each group by drawing a Smile card and turning their chair around so that they face away from the group. They read the phrase(s) on their card twice, once while smiling and once while not smiling. They get to decide for themselves if they want to smile the first time or the second time.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team members listen to the phrases being read and decide which time the speaker was smiling. They can use their scratch paper to indicate which time they thought the speaker was smiling.

The speaker than turns their chair back to the rest of the group and reveals which time they smiled. The role of speaker then passes clockwise around the group.

Debrief
At the conclusion of the activity, the facilitator should lead a discussion about how easy it was to tell the difference in tone of voice and what effect that would have on the listener. The debriefing questions can be modified to fit the topic you are training. Suggested debrief questions include: • How many times could you tell the difference between when the speaker was smiling or not as they read the card? • How did the smiling person make you feel? How did you feel when they were not smiling? • With which person would you rather interact? The smiling person or the one not smiling? • Which person do you feel would be more helpful? Who would be more sympathetic to your situation if you were contacting them for help?

Credits
This activity was inspired by a monthly evaluation I received as a customer service representative for a credit card company. The evaluator commented that she could “hear the smile” in my voice as I assisted a customer. Several years later I was asked to develop a session on Phone Skills for a different employer and developed this activity to emphasize that using the right tone of voice can make people more receptive to your requests.